What are you smoking, though thanks for flagging up my vids, always appreciated.

You can clearly see that his movement is lighter and more efficient in the 2007 video. He needs more recovery time from side to side than he used to, I first started noticing this clearly around about US Open 2009 - AO 2010, where he started lacking the strength or something to immediately switch directions after making a difficult retrieval.

I've already made vids for the 09 and 10 AO for Fed's best points which I will upload in due course. Fed's lost explosiveness and can't react as decisively anymore, in that 2007 he is a *cat*.

When he's not slacking around Fed is a really explosive and fast mover, even by today's standards and compared to other great athletes in the game.

One of the main differences I notice is that compared to his former self, he's not hitting with as much balance as he did in the past and his recovery (possibly due to this former point) during points looks more inefficient than it looked like.

Another point that really accounts for how Fed's movement look like is his antecipation, and that I really think it has declined in Fed's game at least compared to his prime years.
He's not anticipating nearly as well as he did in the past and that has a huge effect on how fast and smooth he looks when moving. In his prime he would be on the shot before the ball had left his opponent's racket. Even Roddick has described that as though it felt like Federer had an extra second of time to react.

But after all, that's why Federer will probably end up as the best mover of all time. The efficiency of his movement is so great that the fading that happens in it for reasons of age, physical decline and many other reasons hardly affects his game and still looks pretty good compared to even his best years.

Whereas you look at Nadal today, and you notice a much more pronounced decline in speed that affects much more his game overall. He looks like he's moving in slow motion compared to when he was younger.

Basically what Fate Archer said, I'm just too lazy to ever put serious thoughts down in a comprehensive manner.

Roger is much more unsure of himself now in how to anticipate strokes and often chooses to move in a reactive rather than a proactive manner these days, and this in part stems from having less time to take in the situation due to marginally inferior athleticism but also due to him controlling rallies less consistently than he did before. Before, instances during rallies where his movement was purely reactive, he could bank on his athleticism and produce something useful at the end of it all.

The curious thing is when he *knows* he's in a sticky position he'll suddenly switch to anticipating early and being more proactive because he no longer trusts his super explosive, reactive instincts which he used to be able to show all the time, back in the good old days oh boy oh boy oh boy the good ole days yum yum...

El Diablo makes a point that genuinely makes me chuckle, given that the rally pace in the mid 2000's was just electric and beyond today's game. I'm watching Safin Agassi and Safin Federer 2004 AO semis and finals and i'm seeing incredible reflexes and shot-making, and of course a cat-like Federer.

In that AO 07' it looked ridiculously easy for him, some of the points shown in the vid looks like he can't even be bothered to move, just hit winner after winner. He still does move extremely well, but has moved a lot better in his prime like in 2005 where i would say he was moving at his very best, his footwork was absolutely perfect back then:

This is a case of this is what you say is how you want to feel as opposed to what is really the case. He's playing very well, but he's not better than ever. Also, is it funny how fed just wins a few matches and people seem to revel in him and he loses a few matches and people say he has hit rock bottom and should retire?

So what happened if he retired when everyone was announcing it several months ago? He wouldn't have won the Basel Open, BNP Paribas or WTF. TT forums is truly like high school where everything is a fade and happens in the moment. When people project that Nadal is done and he's going downhill, I have the foresight to see that next year, he'll have a big year. I don't buy into fades and hype because I have foresight.

Of course, just like 24-25 year old Nadal this year got slammed 6 times by peak Novak so stop making excuses for him. He just couldn't stop a guy from defeating him, period !

BTW. It's still incredibly shameful to argue and disagree with posters who claim Fed is past his best at the age of 30 while making a ton of excuses for 24 year old Nadal and claiming he's past his best.

However, Nadal did look rather subpeak at FO 2011, also Wim 2011 was rather sloppy regardless of Novak playing a great match.

So Nadal is still in prime, however he is not playing peak anymore. Perhaps that will change next year, but I am not sure Nadal has his head 100% in the game. He does not seem to be trying as hard, and seems he has other stuff on his mind.

Nadal will have to do something drastic next year, like he has in previous years, if he is still to continue. Not saying that he can't do it, however the likely hood is rather low at this point in time. He does not look like he has the motivation, focus, energy, etc like he did at his peak and that is rather obvious.

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Forgot to ask, have you already prepared Fed voodoo doll and shrine to pray that he doesn't win a slam next year (or maybe even 2, the terror) ?

For the love of god, who makes these whimsical videos with the awful music? Every single one of these stupid highlight videos with the epic/glorious/whimsical/sad music (Requiem for a dream, carmina burana, dvorak, I'm looking at you) are cringeworthy.

On the other hand Nadal is past his best at 24 of course which explains all the beatings he took at the hands of one player this year.

His peak lasted 4 months in 2008, one month in 2009 and 5 months in 2010, heck that's almost a whole year of supreme unstoppable GOAT tennis!

Fed's peak of course has lasted around 9 years already and is probably gonna stretch to 2012 and 2013 as well.

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Nadal is at his best now. There's just somebody else who is better.
Nadal did well in 2010 because there was no competition. Now there is competition and he cannot win like he used to. Nothing to be ashamed of. No excuses necessary. Just accept the reality and move on.

Nadal is at his best now. There's just somebody else who is better.
Nadal did well in 2010 because there was no competition. Now there is competition and he cannot win like he used to. Nothing to be ashamed of. No excuses necessary. Just accept the reality and move on.

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You do realize I was being completely sarcastic due to stupidity of this thread and absurd claims of certain posters?

Fed is definitely past his best at the age of 30.

Nadal obviously hasn't declined to any serious degree as evidenced by the fact that if we take only one player out of the equation 2011 turns out to be his best career year.

In that AO 07' it looked ridiculously easy for him, some of the points shown in the vid looks like he can't even be bothered to move, just hit winner after winner. He still does move extremely well, but has moved a lot better in his prime like in 2005 where i would say he was moving at his very best, his footwork was absolutely perfect back then: